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A complement C5-targeted GalNAc-conjugated siRNA with sustained efficacy in a non-human primate model of IgA nephropathy
In vivo-directed evolution identifies AAV-WM04 as a next-generation vector for potent and sustained hearing restoration in DFNB9
Integrative Multi-Omics Mendelian Randomization Analysis Identifies NIT2 as a Potential Metabolic Risk Gene in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
J Gene Med. 2026 Sep;28(9):e70111. doi: 10.1002/jgm.70111.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Metabolic pathways are crucial in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) pathogenesis, but causal metabolic genes remain unclear. This study used Summary data-based Mendelian Randomization (SMR) and colocalization to identify metabolism-related genetic loci influencing HCC risk.
METHODS: Differentially expressed genes in hepatic malignancy phenotype versus normal tissues from TCGA and GTEx were analyzed. Metabolism-related candidates were examined via SMR and colocalization using multi-omics data: methylation (mQTL), expression (eQTL), and protein (pQTL) quantitative trait loci.
RESULTS: Multi-omics integration identified NIT2 as a key metabolic regulator for HCC. The cg13016775 locus of NIT2 was associated with elevated HCC risk at gene (OR = 1.618, 95% CI: 1.199-2.182) and protein (OR = 4.432, 95% CI: 1.783-11.018) levels. Colocalization supported a shared causal variant (PPH4 > 0.6), linking NIT2 to hepatocarcinogenesis via metabolic regulation.
CONCLUSIONS: This study provides multi-omics evidence for NIT2 as a potential causal gene in HCC, enhancing understanding of metabolic contributions to HCC pathogenesis and highlighting integrative genomics for uncovering causal relationships.
PMID:42681890 | PMC:PMC13534973 | DOI:10.1002/jgm.70111
Mitigating Object Hallucinations in Vision-Language Models through Region-Aware Attention Recalibration
NeurIPS: Neuro-anatomical Inductive Priors for Sphere-based Brain Decoding
Cascade-KDE: Robust Time-Series Restoration under Out-of-Distribution Impulse Corruptions
Cross-Domain Energy-Guided Diffusion Generation for Off-Dynamics Reinforcement Learning
Inference-Time Alignment of Diffusion Models via Trust-Region Iterative Twisted Sequential Monte Carlo
AutoResearchClaw: Self-Reinforcing Autonomous Research with Human-AI Collaboration
Memorize Theorems, Not Instances: Probing SFT Generalization through Mathematical Reasoning
Epigenome-wide Mendelian randomization with multi-omics validation identifies epigenetic drivers of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Commun Biol. 2026 Apr 11. doi: 10.1038/s42003-026-10033-1. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a complex disease without clear etiology or effective therapy. While DNA methylation has been implicated in IPF pathogenesis, the tissue-specific causal effects of the epigenetic factors on IPF remain undetermined. Here, we perform epigenome-wide Mendelian randomization using blood-based methylation quantitative trait loci of 420,509 CpG sites and genome-wide association study for IPF to elucidate the causal effects of the CpG sites on IPF. Totally, 452 CpG sites has shown putative causal effects on IPF risk after Bonferroni correction. Among them, 13 CpG sites have shown strong colocalization evidence with genetic factors associated with IPF. Specifically, DNA methylation at CpG sites within MAN2A2 and TRIM27 shows significant differences between IPF lungs and controls, correlating with altered mRNA expressions of these genes in lung tissues. The CpG site in MAN2A2 is a binding site of ZNF384 according to transcription factor databases. RNA sequencing in the TGFβ1-induced alveolar epithelia confirms significantly reduced expression of MAN2A2 and ZNF384 comparing to the controls. Collectively, our study suggests a putative causal link between DNA methylation within MAN2A2 and IPF risk, wherein lung-specific DNA methylation in MAN2A2 may perturb the interaction between ZNF384 and MAN2A2, revealing novel roles for these genes in IPF pathogenesis.
PMID:41965819 | DOI:10.1038/s42003-026-10033-1
Epigenome-wide Mendelian randomization with multi-omics validation identifies epigenetic drivers of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Commun Biol. 2026 Apr 11. doi: 10.1038/s42003-026-10033-1. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a complex disease without clear etiology or effective therapy. While DNA methylation has been implicated in IPF pathogenesis, the tissue-specific causal effects of the epigenetic factors on IPF remain undetermined. Here, we perform epigenome-wide Mendelian randomization using blood-based methylation quantitative trait loci of 420,509 CpG sites and genome-wide association study for IPF to elucidate the causal effects of the CpG sites on IPF. Totally, 452 CpG sites has shown putative causal effects on IPF risk after Bonferroni correction. Among them, 13 CpG sites have shown strong colocalization evidence with genetic factors associated with IPF. Specifically, DNA methylation at CpG sites within MAN2A2 and TRIM27 shows significant differences between IPF lungs and controls, correlating with altered mRNA expressions of these genes in lung tissues. The CpG site in MAN2A2 is a binding site of ZNF384 according to transcription factor databases. RNA sequencing in the TGFβ1-induced alveolar epithelia confirms significantly reduced expression of MAN2A2 and ZNF384 comparing to the controls. Collectively, our study suggests a putative causal link between DNA methylation within MAN2A2 and IPF risk, wherein lung-specific DNA methylation in MAN2A2 may perturb the interaction between ZNF384 and MAN2A2, revealing novel roles for these genes in IPF pathogenesis.
PMID:41965819 | DOI:10.1038/s42003-026-10033-1
Unifying Group-Relative and Self-Distillation Policy Optimization via Sample Routing
When Models Judge Themselves: Unsupervised Self-Evolution for Multimodal Reasoning
Lysine attenuates acute lung injury by restoring α-tubulin acetylation and ciliary activity
Cell Death Discovery, Published online: 16 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41420-026-03025-x
Lysine attenuates acute lung injury by restoring α-tubulin acetylation and ciliary activity